How to Achieve Career Readiness Through SolidProfessor’s Technical Certificates

SolidProfessor Technical Certificates are a great way for you and your students to showcase the specific engineering skills you’ve gained through your SolidProfessor training.

Technical Certificates are like micro-credentials or digital badges that indicate you’ve completed specific skills training. SolidProfessor offers more than 100 Technical Certificates, from Flow Simulation to Sculpting in Meshmixer, Design for Additive Manufacturing, 3D Printing with MakerBot, and much more. Earning a Technical Certificate with SolidProfessor is extremely straightforward! To get started, you need to watch every lesson in a SolidProfessor course and take the Course Review Test. You must score at least 80% to achieve your Technical Certificate. Then your credential will appear in your SolidProfessor account in the “Achievements” section. From there, you can click the LinkedIn icon to share your Technical Certificate on your LinkedIn profile, signaling to future employers that you have expertise in a specific topic.

Why do students need Technical Certificates, especially if they’re attending a postsecondary institution?

The workplace is changing rapidly, leading to a huge shift in the types of jobs available to new graduates. In fact, it’s estimated that about 40% of existing university degrees will soon be obsolete. And many traditional undergraduate and postgraduate degree programs could be eliminated within the decade. In other words, postsecondary degrees don’t necessarily provide students with all of the skills and training they need to be successful in the workplace, especially in industries like manufacturing. Enter: Technical Certificates. SolidProfessor’s Technical Certificates help close that skills gap, showing employers that you have the specific training required for their industry. This helps tighten the skills gap and lessens the amount of on-the-job training required by employers. Plus, you have the satisfaction of adding new credentials to your repertoire! SolidProfessor CEO and Co-founder Tony Glockler explains:

What’s the difference between Technical Certificates and software certifications?

At SolidProfessor, we’re all about software certifications! We have dozens of certification preparation courses, like our

• Certified SOLIDWORKS Associate Exam Prep Course
• Inventor User Certification Exam Prep Course
• AutoCAD User Certification Prep Course
• Revit User Certification Exam Prep Course

Getting a software certification is a great way for you and your students to show that you’re proficient in using that program. It shows you can design quickly and efficiently and you have a baseline set of skills in that platform. Technical Certificates are much more focused. They indicate that you and your students have mastered discrete skills and concepts. You can also be a little bit choosier about what you learn. If you specifically want to show that you have skills in GD&T Form and Orientation Controls, you can get that specific Technical Certificate. If you’d rather show that you have a broad range of knowledge and can navigate Inventor effectively, get the certification. Both are extremely useful for you and your students to display on your resumes and LinkedIn profiles!

Can teachers add Technical Certificates to their assignments?

Yes, many teachers fold the Technical Certificate process into their curriculum. This is a great way to keep students engaged in the learning process, as they have an actual end goal they can work toward. Of the 2,100+ schools that use SolidProfessor, most leverage our Technical Certificates in the following way:

• Step 1: Determine which Technical Certificate(s) you want your students to achieve.
• Step 2: Break up the Technical Certificate course into assignments. Most teachers try to assign only about 7-30 minutes worth of videos at a time.
• Step 3: Reiterate the skills students learned through watching SolidProfessor’s lessons with in-class projects, lectures, or Q&As.
• Step 4: Make the Course Review Test a requirement. It can even be the midterm or final. And remember: The test is automatically graded and all grades are recorded in your dashboard. With our LTI integration, all of these scores will then appear in your learning management system automatically!

Of course, there are dozens of different ways to use Technical Certificates in your classroom — as extra credit, for after-school programs — and we always encourage teachers to use SolidProfessor in the way that makes the most sense for their specific needs.

Interested in learning more about our Technical Certificates?

If you’d like to get a better idea of how SolidProfessor’s Technical Certificates can make a positive impact on your students, please contact us at:

• Email: info@solidprofessor.com
• Phone: (619) 269-8584

In the meantime, check out our Course Library to see our robust suite of training programs.